Comments on: Reaction to Michigan's Shrinking School Year

By: Ken Whitcomb

Ken Whitcomb — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 05:50:12 +0000

If as it seems from some of the comments posted in the article above, the intent of this debate is make sure that our future work force is able to retain jobs in this state and prevent the loss of jobs in Michigan, we need to see how many jobs we’ve lost because our workers were unable to provide the goods and services needed compared with the number of jobs lost because the cost of wages and benefits were lower elsewhere. While an educated workforce and electorate are absolutely essential in my opinion, let’s not kid ourselves about why unemployment is as high as it is here. It is because of lower costs elsewhere. When a manufacturer closed it’s doors in Greenville to move the production line to Mexico, the company stated it was not because they were loosing money here nor because of lack of quality in production, it was for a “competitive advantage”, i.e. higher profit margins from lower wages and benefits. Until Michigan can provide an essential resource that can’t be found elsewhere, or a workforce that will cost less than can be found elsewhere, the number of days that students are in school won’t matter much to the unemployment rate. If on the other hand, the debate is truly about the quality of education that students receive as determined by the amount of time that they are in class, people like Wayne Kuipers and Mike Flannagan need to remember that the rules determining the length of a school day and how the 180 days of instruction were calculated were set by the Department of Education and the Legislature, not the schools. The schools simply operate with the rules as they are set for them. If they do not like how it is working, the ability to set the rules (and interpretaion of those rules) remains in their hands as it always has.

By: Scott

Scott — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:33:44 +0000

Perhaps instead of making kids go to school longer maybe, just maybe try to cut down the socializing from both the teachers and the students. I’m currently in High School and to be honest thats where I see the biggest waste of time, Teachers running on about their lives or some other trivial subject opposed from what they should actually be teaching. Also there is the problem with parents, most don’t really care and do not discipline their children to do their work which is suppose to prepare their children to “succeed”. Also to make us more competitive with the world perhaps the teachers should also be put to a higher standard of teaching; Yes, Actually CHALLENGE the students instead of wasting their time with busy work.(Some might fail but were looking to become competitive with the rest of the world so I suppose we should look to Capitalism as an inspiration, the ones who really want it will succeed while the others looking to have a fun social outing will fail miserably.)

By: William Craft

William Craft — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 01:21:26 +0000

I was a teacher/Administrator for 37 years and served on a large city Board of Education for 8 years.
I can not imagine what is happening as far as “Snow Days” each year that are not made up.
This is rediculous and steps must br taken immediately to correct this situation.
Yes and teacher organizations must be part of the solution

By: GeorgeBlaha

GeorgeBlaha — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:26:19 +0000

Don’t forget … it’s OUR education system that has allowed/fostered many of the problems. Case in point is the (current) outrage with AIG. Congress, full of “highly educated” men and women – most of whom were educated in our great country – allowed the language which allowed the “bonuses” to the AIG employees. We don’t need another generation of “educated” leaders such as these; we need an improvement. Just a thought.

By: bobdurivage

bobdurivage — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:19:21 +0000

If we don’t have the money to improve our educational system for the students, than we have too many students. Snip snip.

By: Fred

Fred — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:02:09 +0000

What guarantee is there that given X number of days school is in session, those children will indeed be in school? In my experience after teaching 31 years is that there are more and more excuses for children NOT being in school on any given day. Excuses like sporting events, family vacations, weddings, band trips, excursions and sometimes Mom and dad just needing the child at home to baby sit, watch puppies being born or help clean house. It seems as that anytime a child or parent wishes the child can miss school and the teachers are to provide lessons for them. The real harm is the child misses the dialogue, give and take, and socialization that occurs in the classroom. Lab classes really suffer as well as missed exams. How to make up, prevent unfair advantage or cheating etc. Glad I am retired!

By: Richard Guilford

Richard Guilford — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:56:20 +0000

It is surprising that no one, and I do mean no one, bothers to look at the problems of education from the point-of-view of the customer: the student and parents. If they did, they’d discover that the needs of the customer vary in every, and I mean every, grade level. The demands on teachers are correspondingly different, but there is no recognition of this in time-on-task, pay, class size,collateral assistance, etc.
Somewhere along the way we need to re-invent the schools, one grade at a time, based on child development knowledge, and educational research.
Education is not a sausage factory, but we approach our system as though it were.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:07:46 +0000

If we are truly serious about competing with China, Japan and India, we need to have kids in school 13 months a year!